Film Movement

Dang…er, Yay!

 

While I can’t exactly say they stole the essence of my idea since this has been around 6 years (officially 3 years before I had my own idea-ish thoughts), I can possibly claim that great minds think alike (though I actually don’t believe that).  

I recently saw El Violin (see upcoming post), and this month’s selection is Le Fils de l’epicier (The Grocer’s Son).

It works mainly as a DVD of the month club, with a film and a short film, either independent or foreign.  They have some showings at theaters.  The website offers a few ways to search for movies, so it is easy to find a subject/genre/ country that interests you (there is a link on the side).  I found some of the movies at blockbuster, so easy!

So that’s it.

Superama

  

This is a gobelin (type of tapestry) by Gabriel Kuri from Mexico City (now, there and Brussels).

I can actually say that this is awesome, and mean it.  My mom and I went to the High Museum back home in Atlanta a while back.  We had gone to a Georgia O’Keeffe show… and there was a show on the same floor featuring artists from Latin America.  Out of everything I saw that day in the entire museum, this was the most surprising and wonderful.  The picture doesn’t do it any justice.  It is the length of an entire wall.  Being up close to see the actual weaving (a type traditional to Guadalajara) is important to whole statement too, I guess.  

I found a little bit about this work online at CARE (a site for kids, actually) and KultureFlash but just a smattering here and there…

No Excuse

I am afraid that this blog venture has become more like my adolescent attempts at keeping a diary with each passing day: beginning as a passionate, fervent chronicle with a dash of self-consciousness and then a negleted, sad symbol of procrastination and then…oblivion.

 

But NO that will not happen.  I have a few posts in the pipeline that require a bit of polish, if I could only remember my notebook when I am actually doing these things.  Oh! and I am working on a online radio station, though I think it will be on last.fm rather than pandora (since pandora is giving me problems with the whole idea of eclectic music).  

BUT to get things rolling, here is a link to a review on Slate about a mind boggling Japanese Western

Slate

Taraf de Haïdouks

I started this post days ago, and for research I started listening to all their music, and since I am the worst multi-tasker EVER I just now pulled myself away from all the tangental research projects that arose (i.e. the musical about the oxford english dictionary that I WILL write and it WILL star a certain Neil Patrick Harris or Alan Cumming or Billy Connolly-even if they don’t make historical sense).  Wow try to figure out that tangent: awesome romanian gypsy music (their word, not mine-so don’t think I’m being pejorative) to the OED in 3 steps.

 I started on their self titled album which I burned from The Coolest Person I Know (thanks, Amanda) and soon was listening to them for all occasions: before a big regatta, road trips, when it rained (or more likely snowed- being that I lived in upstate New York at the time), when it was nice out… Whatever you want to call the genre that they are in (the accordion-laden, sprinkled with fiddle and sprawling vocals of a gypsy band) they are both the platonic ideal and the most surprising and experimental group I have heard so far. 

Don’t take my word, look for yourself….LOOK!

YouTube

(I would post it directly but the link keeps on getting mangled somehow…sniffle)

SO: Taraf de Haïdouks is the name that they are known by but in Romania they are Taraful Haiducilor, see the reason why here(this site is also provides a good sampling on their music).  If you happen to be in Italy not this Sunday but the next, they will be in Pinerolo and then they will be mostly in France.  It seems like they are perpetually on tour, though they haven’t been in the US since 2005, keep an eye out…here.  

ALSO: their latest studio album since 2001 is called Maškaradă (I’m a little tardy-it came out last year)

Finally here are some links:

Check out NPR-they have a streaming concert and a little history: NPR

Here is their myspace page (of course they have a myspace page): myspace

This is pretty neat:Divano Production

     They represent all kinds of music from Belgium to Macedonia to Mali

Vinnie Puh

Yes.  This whole cultural give-and-take thing goes both ways.  Obvs.  And though my main aim is to spotlight what the rest of the (non-US) world is giving, some of the take is pretty interesting too…

Meet Russia’s Winnie the Pooh…Vinnie Puh…a brown bear (raccoon?) and not the goldenrod that I was well acquainted with (I might have had a few books, stuffed animals, figurines…sigh)

thanks to grainedit.com for the info

and on a unrelated note…watched Project Runway tonight…saw one bang too many, which while it annoyed me also set me at my own hair with craft scissors.  Did I achieve the retro rosie the riveter trim, the pixie asymetrical fringe or the bookish curtain?  No. Sadly I ended up with the Stella, and if you don’t know our designers on a first name basis already I’ll give you a clue:  she’s the broad with an iron deficiency and a penchant for “leatha”

Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Art is So Hot Right Now…

So I was originally going to write a post about Yan Han (whose work you see above) but a couple google searches, one fever, and four days later I am now prepared to blow your mind…

(Wharf on the Canal-Wang Qi)

It seems that since the mid 20th century there was a resurgence in woodblock art- the beginning of this movement focused on scenes depicting the newly established Communist lifestyle.  But the themes and methods have evolved well beyond just that (as you can see).  

(Long Road: Number Two- Zhao Yannian)

Reclaiming an old, traditional art form and incorporating European and Japanese variations on the art form the themes became the meaningful foundation for depictions of the changing landscapes, ethos, and function of this art.  The 1980’s marked this new chapter, increased international attention and a general overall flourishing of the movement.

(Ox- Ban Ilng)

The Murban Foundation is responsible for many of the exhibitions of these collections of prints all over the world (Chicago’s Art Institute and the British Library are two that I have seen), but they don’t seem to have a website accessible to just anyone…oh well, I have included some links below that has better info than I could ever give

(Rhythm on the Street-Wang Qi)

This selection is mostly of the “biggies” and span the late 60’s on…

(The North- Yu Chengyou)

Links (for some reason I can’t get the links to work-so y’all have to do the arduous task of actually copying and pasting yourself)

Sweet Briar College’s exhibition:

             http://www.artgallery.sbc.edu/exhibits/00_01/chinesewoodblock/

The British Library (sigh):

             http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/chineseprints/tour.html#

The Art Institute:

             http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/exhibition/edges

The Secret Life of Saeed

by Emile Habiby (or Habibi)

First, this book introduced me to one of my favorite descriptors: pessoptimist.  That is Saeed: a contradiction, a jewel of an everyman that leads an identifiable but surreal life.  Yet again in this blog I will lump something with Slaughter House Five and Catch-22–but who can blame me: written in the early 70’s this story deals with the Israel and Palestinian issue that has far more than two sides and Habibi meets it with equal doses of absurdism and tenderness.  Simply a classic.

1:30 in the Morning

The fact that I am getting PHASE 1 of my quest for global amalgamation under way has gotten me pretty jazzed: I’ve put off classwork and curtailed my napping.  Now you can imagine how excited I am if I put off any form of sweet, sweet sleep.  

SO one of the things keeping me up was I didn’t think my mission statement got to the heart of what I hope this site can be.  About a year ago I read a NYT Book Review all about the global book business.  Most of the total books translated in the world are from English to other languages.  The U.S. market in particular is getting a pittance of the books written in other languages.  And this is just books.  The market here for films and music keeps non-US works on the fringes for the most part.  But these influences from far (and not so far) away places still creep in, and eventually you see remakes of Japanese horror film and British/Sri Lankan hip hop.  

The US is considered by many a melting pot where (in some) places people need not assimilate their tastes in music, fashion,dance, film, and literature but instead celebrate and share.  I want this site to be a platform where people can share and discuss some of these things that are available (or are not) but may not be publicized because the creative industries are putting their money promoting Justin Timberlake or a movie based from a comic book.  

But don’t get me wrong…I do have a soft spot for JT and I have read some great, complex comics (some from Egypt, too).

So to anyone who is reading this (which is undoubtedly no one-except maybe my mom and dad): leave comments, email me, etc.  This is a venture based on people sharing what they know…I never seem to be that person, but I always know cooler people that do, which is why over the next few days I am going to send out emails, and enlist as many people as I can to cull the best of what is out there in the world.

One last thing, you the reader may be reading this and thinking “Mmmm I might like this idea, but oy the writing needs to be a little less _______ (fill in blank with annoying/spastic/verbose).”  Well to you, all I can say is hang in there, tiger.  I am a complete novice at this–hopefully over the next few posts I will find my style and it will be smooth sailing from there on out.

A Few Favorites

 

Johnny Hallyday: French Popstar Extraordinaire

A mélange, if you will, of American and French pop culture embodied in one man: Johnny

I’ve read his biography and keep up to date with Paris Match…there is an vast cult of personality around this dude, but some of his music is pretty catchy

Haruki Murakami 村上春樹: Think a darker Vonnegut

Wow, I bet I am not the first to blow the lid off this writer but I can’t help it if I am a tweed wearing, liberal-arts cliche.

Earnest Cole: Photographer

I saw a retrospective of this work this winter in South Africa, and it reminded me of the transformative power of his work…but I had a devil of a time finding links to his work (even with both spellings of his name)

La historia oficial (The Official Story)

Why do they always play the best movies late late late at night? Am I the only one who thinks this?  A few years ago, probably around 2am, I saw this movie and became engrossed.  Norma Aleandro’s character’s transformation is subtle.  They actually filmed this concurrently with the end of Argentina’s military dictatorship in 1983.

And so it begins…

It is a little daunting this plan I have cooked up…

I guess I will start with a sketch of a mission statement

#1: Definition

Coriolis Effect:

the apparent deflection of a moving object that is the result of the earth’s rotation (Merriam-Webster)

Ok…so I took this concept that I learned in an Intro Oceanography class and I began to see it as a metaphor for the cross-pollination of influences in popular culture.  Aside from the mixed metaphor, that is basically the gist.

#2: Effect vs. Affect

If you are/were an English major feel free to skip this…but the way I see it the most common usage of ‘effect’ is as a noun and is a little weak and after-the-fact .  ’Affect’ is commonly a verb meaning “to influence” which is what I see happening… so much that it becomes hard to figure out who is influencing whom (Strunk and White)

#3: Examples

We are enjoying a time when popular telenovelas are turned into popular sitcoms (Ugly Betty), Bollywood has made a mark on Hollywood, and some of us wait eagerly for the translation of the newest Murakami book…but what we see is the tip of an iceberg. 

#4: Goals

I’m personally lucky to have friends who know much more about world wide popular culture than I do, so I hope to eventually to get them and any unfortunate soul that finds this site in on the conversation.  I’ll spotlight different books, movies, art, music, etc.  Also I’ll put up some of my relevant photos and posts…but it won’t be a personal navel-gazing fest